Individual Autonomy and Responsibility in Late Imperial China By ...

rather to clarify whether the potentiality of human nature is hindered or not, and to single out the crucial passages in self-cultivation.

Summing up, the consciousness of an agent’s autonomy in their choices manifests in shame if one does not follow one’s inner conscience. Dealing with such shame is not easy, especially if the level of self-cultivation is not advanced, owing to the way selfishness and desires challenge principles; the tension with making the final choice, especially between alternative resolutions or competing virtues; and the resort to “balancing the circumstances” (quan). Finally, great cautiousness is taken in the way one reacts (opportunity, intensity, proportionality, etc.) to keep inner and outer harmony.

Fate, Karma, and Moral Responsibility: Buddhist Influences

At the popular and syncretistic level, Yuan Huang 袁黄 (1533–1606), a scholar close to the Taizhou school, reinterpreted Confucian Classics in the light of his faith in human power over natural existence and preached the opportunity of all to change their destinies. Against the Confucian distinction between moral freedom and external limitations due to destiny and circumstances, he asserted the theory of establishing one’s destiny, liming 立命,¹⁷⁵ which combined the teaching of Wang Gen and Wang Ji with popular morality and Buddhist and Daoist techniques.¹⁷⁶ Whereas the ethics of Mencius were self-motivated and an end in themselves, Yuan Huang’s system contained a strong utilitarian and practical component, taking into account the ideas and influence of some syncretist thinkers of the period. ¹⁷⁷ His methods for correcting one’s defects—often personalized according to the subject—shows a deep insight into human psychology.¹⁷⁸ The Buddhist monk Zhuhong, in using the method of merits and demerits, warns in one passage of his writings that the superior man “does good for its own sake, not because he hopes for good fortune. In the same way, he avoids evil not because he fears punishment. The truth is that when a person eliminates evil and cultivates good all day, no sign (xiang) of good or evil appears, nor is there any longer a mind that cultivates itself. Both reward and punishment are in themselves empty.”¹⁷⁹